Electronic programme guides (EPGs) provide a user interface for the display of television programmes, such as audio and video programmes to the user. Interactive EPGs (IEPGs) allow the user to select programmes for viewing and/or recording. Examples of known IEPGs include those provided with the Sky™ and Sky+™ set-top boxes. Aspects of those IEPGs are described in WO 96/37996 and WO 99/66721.
IEPGs are typically designed for display on a television (TV) screen, and are therefore limited by the resolution of that screen. With the advent of High Definition TV (HDTV), higher resolution IEPGs are possible. However, the number of different channels available continues to increase and the user must typically navigate around the IEPG, or filter by search criteria, to find a programme of interest.
It is also desirable to include additional information in an IEPG, such as advertising or programme notes, and to provide additional functionality, such as Push and Pull Video On Demand (VOD), interactive TV content and user configurable options and preferences, all incorporated within the IEPG window.
With this increased amount of information for display, there is a need for an improved IEPG television display. It is sometimes stated facetiously that multi-channel television provides hundreds of channels but that there is nothing good to watch. Behind this joke lies a real problem, namely that television programming that a user is interested in may be spread over tens or hundreds of channels. The entire broadcast content of the Sky satellite platform currently amounts to some approximately 14,400 hours per day. Typically a viewer will watch about 2.9 hours of television programming a day. Therefore, a viewer watches about 0.02% of the available television programming. Finding this desired content therefore presents a real logistical problem that is only made more difficult by the ability to record around a hundred hours of programming and other non-linear modes of distribution such as pull-VOD. There is accordingly a need for an intuitive, easy to use means of navigating large quantities of television programming to find desired programmes.